As some of you may have noticed, I'm transitioning to a new genre of content, focusing on investigative journalism rather than gaming. I wanted to clarify that this particular video is not intended to be political. I believe that the issues facing our healthcare system are complex and have developed over many years, not just in the current political climate. In fact, I could create a whole series of 15 videos on this topic alone and still only scratch the surface of the challenges we face. I'm grateful for your support as I make this transition, and I'm excited to bring you more content that explores a wide range of topics, from cutting-edge technologies like AI to deeper dives into psychology and philosophy. If you have leads on stories and interesting video topics, please join the discord and send me a TIP or contact me on twitter. Thanks again for watching, and I look forward to making the next video!
Looking forward to watching your next vid. That's a really solid first! (FWIW, that's coming from someone living in one of those pesky European "socialist" countries with universal healthcare.)
I really appreciate this video because I live with a chronic health condition and feel sometimes the patient is forgot with in the healthcare system. I do find it curious how you started breaking down the affordable healthcare act and the way you broke it down kind of explains the 450 dollars cost of insulin that I had to pay many times in the past 12 years and yes I do blame that law for the increased cost of medications in this country as in 2008 when I developed this disease I could by everything out of pocket except the doctor appointments and blood work.
As someone that wanted to attend medical school before I became completely disillusioned by what it means to be a doctor in the medical **industry**: it's mainly due to the fact that your workload is already pretty staggering, covering several hundred pages of text a week. Prices in medicine (a for-profit industry) are set by insurance providers (a for-profit industry), who have contracts with hospitals/clinics that inflate the price of care for the uninsured. This is why simple procedures cost ridiculous amounts of money. I spend 30 minutes on the table of a general surgeon to have to benign cysts removed from the top of my head, I paid like $200 but what was actually billed was over $3600 - he could have have done that operation drunk in the middle of an earthquake, it wasn't even a test of his skill...the only reason the bill was that high was because that's the price contracted between my insurance provider and the surgeon, they probably paid less than $1k for the whole thing. It is absolutely asinine how medicine works in this country, doctors should be setting their own prices, not conglomerates that buy out hospitals in entire regions. I've gone to following medicine as a hobby, I actually enjoy perusing journals, my primary care doctor actually gives me copies of past journals. Maybe someday I'll pursue medical school, I'm 36 and the idea doesn't yet scare me, but you always lose something when a hobby becomes a career, even if the hobbyist is miles away from the expert in something like medicine. Good luck in school, stick to it, we need you.
@@koRnygoatweed Agree on all accounts. There’s also a whole segment a person could go into about the Boomer generation being so big, and there not being enough of the younger generations to take care of them or replace them in the workforce fast enough. Pair that with us younger generations also being fed up with low wages while simultaneously taking 2 or more job roles at once, it’s an absolute mess. The main thing is that we have to stay positive, and cognizant of reality. Get a career in something that you like, but don’t let the higher ups walk all over you just to get a job.
In The Netherlands I had (during college): 6 EEG scans (including one that took a 5 days hospital stay) 3 MRI scans 2 CT scan 1 PET scan 15000 pils 1 brain surgery and a 10 day hospital stay. And I don’t have a debt, I didn’t have to pay anything above my insurance and 4x300 euros own risk (resets every year). But we have 21% vat and a high income tax in The Netherlands. I like our system more.
Tbf, the dutch healthcare system is much better than the US's, but that's not a high bar. But it still has a lot of problems, it's basically just a diet US system in all its convoluted glory, except it's much cheaper. You still have deductibles and copay and insurance networks and nontransparent coverage and pricing, different insurance types (restitutie, combinatie, natura), you can't switch your insurance except at a designated point in the year as well and anything to do with dental healthcare is a gigantic mess. It's absolutely fucked and it can and used to be much better. Of course, it's still pretty good for emergencies and miles ahead of anything in the US, but it's still a massive clusterfuck.
Lieber Nachbar, now you have moral debt. That's because all your healthy countrymen payed more into the system then they took out, so there was money for you. To repay them, you need to provide something of value to your country and people. And treat the elderly with respect because they agreed to have this system. And don't forget to have children because they will pay into the system when you are too old to work. Best wishes, your neighbor Duitsland.
@@hexlart8481 Doctors and Nurses come from hot air, just to work for you and money appears out of nothing to pay everyone. Nobody needs to have children, raise them educate and train them for millions of euros until they pay into the system that they took from. Insurance always has money, there needs to be no surplus in funds by a majority of healthy people to pay out when someone insured in the same money pool gets ill. Finance deficits and the decline in population that pays more into the tax pool than takes out are figment of our imagination. Alright. There are not problems. None at all.
okay the content shift is hella interesting especially when you dive into topics like this that most people wouldnt think about looking into themselves
This is so true, I hate it when people use 'free market' to describe a market that is anything but free. It needs to have fair competition and many other elements before it meets that category
It seem like the american healthcare system is motivated towards people not getting healthier. And It's insane that the same service costs different for different people. The campaign for universal pricing needs a lot more spotlight.
That is exactly how it is motivated. A recent case in point my poor wife is experiencing: She was able to get approved to start Ozempic for use in weight loss. This medication is also used to help regulate blood sugar in diabetic patients. Currently, she is pre-diabetic and has not been able to lose any weight with proper dieting. Rather than go with the extreme option of gastric bypass, she pushed to take Ozempic. The doctor sent prior-authorization forms to her medical insurance and it was approved, but for only 90 days. Her doctor appealed it but they rejected it again. According to the state medical insurance she has, they will only approve full-time use if she is a type 2 diabetic. The insurance company would rather she continue to be overweight, possibly become a type 2 diabetic, and then get the help she needs. This would allow them to not only get kickbacks for her being on Ozempic, but all the other costs that come from being a lifelong diabetic patient. Prior Authorizations have also become way more common for just about everything in recent years as well across all insurance companies, which just makes it more difficult to get the help you need. But hey, at least the insurance companies are making record profits! I should also add that in retaliation to the lesser payouts that state insurance pays, some places will purposefully book your appointment a month or more out. It's not always because that's the soonest they can get you in, it's because they leave the availability open to people with better paying insurance or people that are able to pay in cash.
It's literally illegal to charge higher premiums on someone unhealthy. Go to the gym and eat healthy? Too bad. You pay the same as Mcfatso's who has a cheeseburger addiction resulting in early heart surgery and blood pressure medication.
@@MaxDad7 I’m adding to the original comment’s point that healthcare doesn’t care if you’re healthy. Did my comment strike home? Are you fat? Is this why you got so defensive?
@@HaloDude557 I don’t think you are understanding what OP said, and are trying to take over the conversation. You do you I guess. Right now you sound like someone who takes everything at face value and attacks anyone who has the the intelligence to look outside the box. I’ll answer your questions. Although they pertain nothing to the OPs comment, which you are supposedly adding to. Did your comment strike home? What is home? There are many ways to take that. I’m assuming you think I’m fat, and that your comment hurt me. So no, it didn’t strike home. Are you fat? Did you know that BMI is a stupid made up number? According to that chart that is supposed to encompass every person’s body type in the US, I am overweight. I bet you are too. Is this why you got so defensive? Defensive is the wrong word to use in this context. I’m questioning your comment. In order to defend, I have to be attacked. I guess on one hand you are right that the healthcare industry doesn’t care if you’re healthy. If you are, then you just pay your premiums and use it for the basics. You don’t have to worry about what medications, operations, or visits are covered. You don’t even need to pay! You could just get an HSA and put in what you want. So here’s my question… Why are you complaining about premiums when you are healthy?
Heres a fun thing, I had an Medical emergency I didnt have my insurance card on me so they billed me as if I had none. 22,000$. When I gave them my Insurance card, My insurance paid 6,845$ and I would have to pay 350$. Math doesn't add up right? Well when I asked them for the complete bill there was a Blank deduction of 14,805$ under what the Insurance paid for. Need more proof its the insurance companies? lol
Here's a step by step how to fix americas healthcare with realistic systems: 1. no change to the average person 2. the government creates a base insurance institute, a non profit private insurance, that every other insurance is forced to pay to. 3. People that that make more than x2 gdp per capita pay more, exactly 2x. and it scaling with income. This will only apply to people born after 2000 for a soft transition 4. Everyone is automatically insured by the base insurance at birth. You can get additional insurance if you want. 5. all existing insurances will still take care of all the work they did before, but they can get a rebate on anything they paid for regarding services that base insurance takes care of. 6. They'll make money off of additional insurance, that is not covered by base.
4:27 Holy hell... $135,870 *just* for pharmacy drug costs during a 29 day hospital stay. The hell did they do, just dump the entire inventory of anything name brand down that person's PICC line.
i totally agree with ya. i live in sweden and it cost 10 bux aprox to go to a hospital NOMATTER what happens bassicly just a cost for taking u in. and if u use any kind of medicin then u pay normal prices(that is very cheap compared to other countries). and when u reach a certain point yearly, for me last year it was 1500 sek for my högkostnadskydd and after that every medicin is heavily discounted.
Here in the UK we have the NHS. Paid for by taxes. Ive had: Fusing 3 vertibrae, MRI scans, consultant visits, drugs, physio, aftercare and long term pain relief. Price at the moment of need... Nothing, there will never be a bill. I could have gone private for the operation on my spine. Because it would be a pre existing condition, insurance wouldnt cover it and would have cost £80,000 to £120,000 ball park figure. Not including the physio, after care or pain relief.
Holy fuck that is insane I don't care what the numbers say those hospitals and clinics are definitely making more the 4%. Now while I know our health care is subsidised in Canada laser eye surgery is considered an elective surgery so I don't think it qualifies as most insurances also wont cover it but I had to do a double take at that $1799 per eye. Our starting cost at Lazik MD is $490 per eye I know cause of their radio commercials and I just double checked their site. That is absolutely insane, now I know people who paid more like those quotes but they had EXTREME eye problems that involved more then the basic procedure.
I was an EMT for 5 years and I always felt gross asking patients in the middle of their emergency for their insurance info and all that. Especially knowing most insurance doesn't cover much if any of an ambulance ride.
Came to this video after your react video reaction, after watching your original wiggle video when it came out. It's wild that I never saw this recommended to me through the algorithm as it's a great video and an interesting topic to me, but it makes sense since I watch mostly game content on YT.
There's lots of reasons why american healthcare is messed up. Some of it is regulation and the absence of competition Some of it is courts dropping the ball and allowing anybody to be sued for any frivolous reason Some of it is insurance companies and other middle men getting money despite adding absolutely nothing to the treatment itself Some of it is monopolization of healthcare via big pharma and IP law Some of it is regulation of big pharma which makes bringing new drugs to the market very very difficult And some of it is market dynamics like the fact that people are very happy to spend high amounts of money on healthcare as it's very important.
The fun part is figuring out which places you can haggle for a lower price. Some places won't do it, but if you offer a place like a Lasik clinic half, they might go for 75% of their asking price because it's elective ad they know that you can just hold off on it.
before I even watch this, healthcare should not be up to the "free market" it should be handled by universal government healthcare so that everyone has healthcare access for the betterment of us all
Great video man. Super insightful and can defintaly relate. My girlfriend underwent a kidney transplant in 2021 and had to jump through so many hoops to get it done. It was hell for her, not just the surgery but the dialysis for years before the opperation and even the medication she is currently on. We had to go through tons of diffrent channels to get what she needs. As you said, it is complicated. Sharing this my friend. Keep up the good work.
Came here for your Tarkov stuff but....that is really quality content. I really like the way your Channel is going....keep it Up, greetings from Germany
2:25 this is exactly what they did to me. Over the next 4 months, they took countless X-rays and it still wouldn't heal. They finally had me turn 90 degrees for one X-ray and found that my collar bone not only broke but there was a piece of bone stuck in-between the two pieces, making it a Z shape. They then scheduled a surgery, had to re break the bone and put a crap ton of titanium in there. About 2 months after surgery, I lost my job as a garage door installer because I wasn't fully healed, it was now covid time and my company couldn't keep me in the office any longer. So, the hospital's billing department took their sweet time and didn't file all of my charges through the healthcare insurance I had through my job. I ended up having to pay $5,000+ extra so it didn't go into collection. Most of the X-rays weren't covered, yet they'd do 3 or 4 every time I went in. I thought it was just this one hospital and their billing that worked like that. Sadly, I am horribly mistaken. This country's healthcare system is abysmal and we just let it stay this way. More transparency is needed.
This exact topic is one of the most IMPORTANT things that needs to be discussed and figured out, IMO. Goat, please continue to do the great work that you do and I would personally love to see an entire series on this topic!
there's nothing to figure out, the solution is braindead obvious, free good state healthcare from a small bit of the ever increasing military budget. You fuckers love to talk about "balancing the budget" but there's only one thing that's massively unbalanced.
Nice work brushing the surface here. I work on the hospital side and it is obscene how much the cost of healthcare is inflated strictly for the purpose of paying the insurance companies their margins. As inflation kicks in, hospital reimbursements for the same things is going down while costs are going up. Most health systems have been operating at a loss for the last year while insurance company margins are soaring.
Yes, I experienced this problem a few months ago in my country as well, South Africa. I have insurance but the costs very quickly exceeded what they would cover so I had to settle a lot of those bills myself. What surprised me was that it wasn't just paying the hospital, it was paying each department seperately and then also the doctors separately. Some of the names in these bills I didn't even recognize and realized how easy it is to go through someones trash and send them a fake bill. Oh wait the radiology department could at least tell me up front how much I would have to pay for the scan only, but 3 of the 4 other bills I didn't see coming. Most GP's here however will tell you upfront how much a consultation would cost if you ask.
As an EMT working on an ambulance they actually told us flat out that the average Emergency Transport will cost somewhere between $500-$2000 for the the patient/insurance and if needed a Helicopter would cost about $10k. 50-100% of it “should” be covered by the insurance and most of the time they just write off what the patient has to pay out of pocket.
It's clear that you're passionate about this kind of content simply because of how quality this vid is. Loving the direction and if it makes you happy all the better.
You're quickly becoming my favorite UA-camr. It's not about the content, it's about your presentation. The Tarkov video was expertly well done, and every video after that was amazingly well presented. And now this! Amazing!
Yuppppp. I was in the hospital in February and 2 days; insurance covered everything but $200. I had to get a follow-up xray to make sure an infection cleared and that alone cost me $200. How does a 2 minute xray and a 2 day hospital stay cost the same amount?
Even as someone who only ends up in A&E, or even my GP's office once every couple years at most, I'll be damned if we ever lose our NHS in the UK, as no matter what happens to me, there's quite a bit of peace of mind when the only 'fees' I'll ever have to think about are for car-parking and snacks. Everything else is paid for through taxes that are automatically deducted before my pay-cheque even hits my bank.
Im self employed in the UK. I gladly pay my taxes at the end of the year knowing the NHS safety net is there... What bugs me the most is the foreigners that barely speak English taking advantage of our 'free' healthcare and benefits systems.
Love the video and the topic. Great research on the topic. I will say that the transition from "Why don't they post prices" into "it doesn't madder to most people anyway" and then into "but insurance companies want the prices to go up so they can make more money" felt a little clunky to me. It worked, but each transition left me feeling a little confused on how we got their and why we were done with the previous section while watching the video the first time. It makes total sense after everything was on the table, but it just felt a little odd in the moment. Feel free to take the feedback or ignore it. Great work overall and I cant' wait to see more of these kinds of vids. I feel like on so many topics these kinds of discussions are only done at the 1000' level, and don't get down into it like this one did.
Whoa what a cool twist to the channel, I love it! This topic of healthcare could be turned into a complete series. Heck when I broke my leg in 3 places when I was 21 and got the bill for $125k even my doctor acted "shocked". But at no point did I ever consider shopping prices, I just wanted to be able to walk again.
I just got 3 stitches done on a 3cm cut. I had to go to the ER to get it done because it was late in the day. It cost $3.2k total, $2000 for the ER visit, $400 for medication/painkillers, $300 for the suture kit, $500 in fees. Ig atleast I got an 80% discount because I am uninsured -_- Moral of the story, if you can wait, wait and go to a UC or Doctor. If it's an immediate emergency try to go to UC or your doctor. If you're dying or UC/doctor isn't equipped to handle your issue, go to ER. You also have your right to deny use of medications, medical items, or medical procedures you don't need.
Extremely interesting video!! I have lived in the US my entire life and haven’t even thought about price transparency in terms of healthcare. I love the new kind of videos you’re putting out.
As a medical professional myself, we have no idea on billing. All we know is if unless you have GOOD insurance then plan to always get screwed. USA= Corporate Medicine. So when a patient decides to stay longer or ask for unemergent things then I feel obligated to say that it’s fine but your insurance may not cover it. That denial of coverage is always insanely expensive. You could take a normal Tylenol and probably quintuple the price
I don't know if it's been mentioned yet, but when I worked at a Hospital we were taught the reason we could not tell people how much something would cost was because of EMTALA (Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act 1986). The way they described it was that everyone has a right to be seen by a medical provider if they checked in, and if we told someone how much something cost and they couldn't afford it, they would leave and thus be denied the right to be seen. Whether this is the real reason or not I don't know. But it's possible the Nurses who told you they didn't know, simply weren't allowed to tell you because of Hospital Policy/Emtala restrictions.
I've worked in healthcare for the last 11 years. I am fairly certain insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies control American healthcare and lobby our governmental officials to keep control and profits high. Yeah, we can't just look at hospital profits which is what most people seem to think is making bank. We have to look into insurance, pharmaceutical and medical device profits to get a deeper understanding of what is going on. Brigham Buhler used to be a pharmaceutical marketer/representative who went on Rogan not too long ago and did a fair job explaining some of this. Also... loving this content g0at. There is so much out there that needs exposed and I for one appreciate what you are trying to do.
In our local hospital theres actjually a bulletin board with all the prices for every operation(analysis like rbc count or urinalysis) except for the price of consultation.
A buddy of mine owes $25,000 because his kid broke an elbow at school, and said when he asked for a specific hospital, the EMT said they were too busy to be able to see his kid quickly. So they strongly advised one that was "out of network" but not as busy. What the fuck does "out of network" even mean? Am I supposed to only have an emergency in a low-traffic area that happens to be close to an "in network" hospital? Criminal
In my health care economics capstone course, one of the biggest issues with health care prices is the lack of transparency for all fees per services rendered. The inability for one physician or hospital to properly negotiate using "fair (and transparent) market prices" with insurance companies is something that needs to be addressed. Otherwise, ridiculous pricing and price gouging will continue. TLDR: because NO ONE, not even the billing departments, nor the insurance underwriters know what the ACTUAL market rate fees for services are, there is not accountability for how truly inflated prices are and will continue to be.
The US/Canada are the only places I've ever been where you don't have to include tax in listed prices. "Clear and accurate information about the cost of stuff" my arse. Everything else however is excellent. Nice work.
i really love your new content and even though you build your channel around Tarkov i really love to see every video you put out no matter what its about :D
wanna know something funny, in germany, where pretty much everyone is insured (you have to be insured by law actually), if you go to a doctor and tell them you are not insured or wish to pay for your treatment yourself for whatever reason, they can give you an exact price at reception.
One thing I'll say about the 4.1% profit margin of hospitals not being much, that's entirely subjective to the market that it directly ties into. Here in the UK the NHS negotiates *much* cheaper prices for treatments as part of the "free at point of entry" care we offer. I had a look at comparable medication prices pharmaceutical companies charge and the differences based purely on country of sale and the US pays a *lot* more, mainly because there's an entire market based on private healthcare where the US is more profitable to charge more and you'll pay it. If the US healthcare system got given the UK prices and didn't change what they charge patients I'd bet profit would skyrocket possibly even into triple (or more) digits of percentage.
I‘ve spent my late youth and early adult life in the US, and I‘ve been a Volunteer EMT-B, so I guess I know the US-Healtcare system at least a bit. I moved back to Germany 9 years ago and I‘m working now as a paramedic since almost 6 years. It’s sad that a hospital treatment can let you go bankrupt in the US. Over here we pay a fixed amount of our salary each month for health insurance, which is 14.6%. Health insurance over here covers almost everything, with the exception of beauty surgery, and even for that are exceptions. That doesn’t mean that we don’t have issues with our healthcare system, there are plenty but I rather pay a fixed amount of my salary each month than going bankrupt because I need a major surgery.
Most may have healthcare in the US but you still receive a big bill when going to the ER (1000+ generally) and have deductibles up to nearly 10k. US healthcare system is a fin joke.
1:52 every time you see somebody like that, makes you feel a little bit better that people like that exist.. then you realize that it's becoming less and less common.. but then you run into another one.. what a badass.
Fascinating. Although often admired, the German system for instance, has other flaws. In general treatmants are free for patients, but the insurance companies try to keep costs low and pressure hospitals. These - meanwhile a lot sold to private companies - offer the best price treamtment, not necessarily the best for the patients but the hospitals purse. So all this is not free of flaws either 😂
The most level headed non-american here. People love to champion "socialized healthcare". I am a veteran, the VA is the biggest example of why socialized healthcare is non-condusive to Americans. They help me with small stuff, but big stuff is when it gets complicated af. With the amount of of "nickel and dime" taxation that goes on in the US, you'd think social programmers would be *more* expansive and not less.
Hello g0at. I liked the video quite a lot. These questions are my world, it's cool to see you diving in. There are so many videos, essays, and books covering this topic, but almost all of them get it massively wrong. I kept thinking, "here's where he's about to totally misunderstand the issues," but you kept saying the right stuff all the way to the end. I agreed with virtually everything you said. Your video is a light in a sea of darkness. Great job! I look forward to your follow-up videos (maybe that's where you'll totally misunderstand :) ). Your final line was the perfect ending point that everybody needs to remember: we do NOT have a market for health care, and that is the explanation for so much of the weirdness of the industry.
HI! I am a biotechnology student in Italy. The industry is extremely expensive. Suffice it to say that a specific analysis or therapy can cost as much as 600/1000 euros per dose. In any case however, from a pharmacological point of view, the American market is always taken as a reference since that is where most of the money goes. The American healthcare market is insane and far too permissive, and I say this as a researcher.
If the medical providers truly didn't know approximately how much treatment was going to cost ahead of time, they would be bankrupt and unable to function. They don't provide this information because they use the lack of price transparency to their advantage when billing insurance companies and patients. They also know that a lot of medical care is non-elective and highly urgent. This gives them a huge amount of leverage of patients when it comes to negotiating over prices. Oh, on a final note that I'm sure others find infuriating and not just myself. The vast majority of hospitals and medical provider entities operate as non-profits. They don't pay any tax on the income they make charging patients obscene prices.
I am a Canadian living in Hong Kong. The last MRI I had (a knee full work up) cost about 5000hkd, or about $800 US - at a clinic, within about 48 hours of request, no panic. America is an amazing fail when it comes to healthcare.
I work in a Hospital's Laboratory as a Medical Lab Scientist. The laboratory is where hospitals make most of their money because of how crazy expensive certain testing can be. When people go to a hospital for some sort of procedure or medical emergency, any blood that is drawn comes to us, and whatever the doctor orders can vary greatly in price, especially if we don't have tests on available in our laboratory; Sometimes doctors can order vague or very specific tests, each test can range from 20 dollars to over 3000, FOR A SINGULAR TEST. There is one test that drives me up a wall when doctors order it and its a Respiratory PCR Bacterial ID, we try to limit the the test to only those who are on Intensive care or pediatric patients but sometimes doctors will demand that we do these tests that will cost the patient about $1000, the best part, they are usually always negative for any of the ones on the panel and further testing will be done. Other things that come to mind is if patients need blood or plasma, or platelets. Transfusions are done but the prices could be different due to the blood providers to the hospitals blood bank. Nurses handle direct patient care and administer stuff like antibiotics, or blood thins, anticoagulants, all that stuff has a price too, but no where near close to what a laboratory will cost you. Hardly anyone knows what actually happens behind the scenes, some even think the doctors run all these tests by themselves. I highly encourage you try to look deeper inside at what goes on in the Hospital's Laboratory or Medical Laboratory Science as well, Idk if you can get much though since we mess with all sorts of private medical information. HIPPA is very important.
It's always unfortunate when someone gets slapped with a huge bill, but try to think of it this way: MDs are generally going to be pretty aggressive when it comes to the diagnosis and treatment of respiratory infections as they are some of the leading causes of mortality/morbidity. The PCR test is going to give you the results you want more accurately and more quickly than a standard culture. It's better to be charged for an expensive test than end up with a prolonged stay (which will cost the hospital more) or get home and end up in respiratory failure (patient is readmitted within a short window of time = hospital receives reduced reimbursement) due to an undiagnosed infection. I know it may not always make sense at first glance, but trust that the tests are not ordered on a whim.
Fantastic video G0at. The healthcare system is hella broken. You really have to take your health and its care into your own hands and not outsource it. The healthcare system mismanaged my chronically ill wife for years before she figured out that no one really cared about her until she found the right doctor who ended up saving her life. God bless that doctor. There are some good doctors out there, but the system is super, super broken.
Health care with no insurance from 18-22 killed me , i had a bad spurt with Asthma which now has subsided. Ive learned it was allergy based. But it killed me financially.... Im 37 now im jist recovering completely
a lot of the pricing is what the insurance will pay for it, they will over inflate the price, then haggle with insurance companies. hospitals get like 5-10% of the actual bill.
I could fill a whole page on this subject. The problem is a really complex one, but the root of it is very simple: it all comes down to making money. A lot of the companies involved in healthcare are publicly held or privately by third-party investors... when you have shareholders, they want to see green on the balance sheet. Providing high-quality care or affordable coverage for everything will usually result in more red on those shareholder meeting presentations, so... corners are cut, costs reduced. Also... you would not believe how much fraud and waste there is in the medical business... it's breathtaking. Sadly, these companies are also in the ears of the people who could change things for the better... so, don't expect changes anytime soon. On a slightly different note: One way you can keep your healthcare costs down is to simply see your physician every year (or twice a year), wash your hands, eat healthy, exercise a little bit every day, don't smoke or drink to excess, and drink plenty of water. These things won't assure perfect health, but they will greatly help your chances of staying healthy. Don't just seek medical care when you're not well... go regularly to stay well.
The ethical interplay with a private healthcare system is so complicated. The people that make the money in this is the insurance company. A dilemma for the public without extensive medical backgrounds. How do you choose what's important without all the information? How can you truly have informed consent?
Well done on the content shift. Your style is excellent and I don't see how you can wrong if you just tell the truth and show the receipts, good luck man, really hope it works for you.
Go deeper! enjoying this episode, but your merely exposing the lack of transparency and not providing us with the deeper insights or history of the topic. Regardless, as a pilot, i love this sorta stuff. Thanks goat
RADIOLOGIST COSTS A COUPLE HUNDRED TO *READ* YOUR X-RAY AND SAY WHAT'S IN THERE? This is absolutely ridiculous, especially since a good doctor will just want to see the x-ray cd themself anyway. A couple hundred dollars for around 20-30 minutes of work, depending on the case and body part. Amazing.
As some of you may have noticed, I'm transitioning to a new genre of content, focusing on investigative journalism rather than gaming. I wanted to clarify that this particular video is not intended to be political. I believe that the issues facing our healthcare system are complex and have developed over many years, not just in the current political climate. In fact, I could create a whole series of 15 videos on this topic alone and still only scratch the surface of the challenges we face.
I'm grateful for your support as I make this transition, and I'm excited to bring you more content that explores a wide range of topics, from cutting-edge technologies like AI to deeper dives into psychology and philosophy.
If you have leads on stories and interesting video topics, please join the discord and send me a TIP or contact me on twitter.
Thanks again for watching, and I look forward to making the next video!
Looking forward to watching your next vid. That's a really solid first!
(FWIW, that's coming from someone living in one of those pesky European "socialist" countries with universal healthcare.)
You make fantastic content, looking forward to this new chapter :)
You're gonna have to get over that. It will be political. Accept that some people are wrong and evil, and won't listen.
I really appreciate this video because I live with a chronic health condition and feel sometimes the patient is forgot with in the healthcare system. I do find it curious how you started breaking down the affordable healthcare act and the way you broke it down kind of explains the 450 dollars cost of insulin that I had to pay many times in the past 12 years and yes I do blame that law for the increased cost of medications in this country as in 2008 when I developed this disease I could by everything out of pocket except the doctor appointments and blood work.
It will always be political
As a medical student I find it wild that they don’t teach us any of the financial side of medicine. Not an ounce of that is discussed.
If you did you'd probably not want to work in the field.
As someone that wanted to attend medical school before I became completely disillusioned by what it means to be a doctor in the medical **industry**: it's mainly due to the fact that your workload is already pretty staggering, covering several hundred pages of text a week.
Prices in medicine (a for-profit industry) are set by insurance providers (a for-profit industry), who have contracts with hospitals/clinics that inflate the price of care for the uninsured. This is why simple procedures cost ridiculous amounts of money. I spend 30 minutes on the table of a general surgeon to have to benign cysts removed from the top of my head, I paid like $200 but what was actually billed was over $3600 - he could have have done that operation drunk in the middle of an earthquake, it wasn't even a test of his skill...the only reason the bill was that high was because that's the price contracted between my insurance provider and the surgeon, they probably paid less than $1k for the whole thing. It is absolutely asinine how medicine works in this country, doctors should be setting their own prices, not conglomerates that buy out hospitals in entire regions.
I've gone to following medicine as a hobby, I actually enjoy perusing journals, my primary care doctor actually gives me copies of past journals. Maybe someday I'll pursue medical school, I'm 36 and the idea doesn't yet scare me, but you always lose something when a hobby becomes a career, even if the hobbyist is miles away from the expert in something like medicine.
Good luck in school, stick to it, we need you.
@@koRnygoatweed Agree on all accounts. There’s also a whole segment a person could go into about the Boomer generation being so big, and there not being enough of the younger generations to take care of them or replace them in the workforce fast enough. Pair that with us younger generations also being fed up with low wages while simultaneously taking 2 or more job roles at once, it’s an absolute mess.
The main thing is that we have to stay positive, and cognizant of reality. Get a career in something that you like, but don’t let the higher ups walk all over you just to get a job.
My state, fairly recently, required healthcare professionals display prices. Requirements on the size of the sign and everything
That's insane to me, especially seen as those in billing likely aren't taught anything about the medical side of things either.
In The Netherlands I had (during college):
6 EEG scans (including one that took a 5 days hospital stay)
3 MRI scans
2 CT scan
1 PET scan
15000 pils
1 brain surgery and a 10 day hospital stay.
And I don’t have a debt, I didn’t have to pay anything above my insurance and 4x300 euros own risk (resets every year).
But we have 21% vat and a high income tax in The Netherlands.
I like our system more.
Tbf, the dutch healthcare system is much better than the US's, but that's not a high bar. But it still has a lot of problems, it's basically just a diet US system in all its convoluted glory, except it's much cheaper. You still have deductibles and copay and insurance networks and nontransparent coverage and pricing, different insurance types (restitutie, combinatie, natura), you can't switch your insurance except at a designated point in the year as well and anything to do with dental healthcare is a gigantic mess. It's absolutely fucked and it can and used to be much better. Of course, it's still pretty good for emergencies and miles ahead of anything in the US, but it's still a massive clusterfuck.
Lieber Nachbar, now you have moral debt.
That's because all your healthy countrymen payed more into the system then they took out, so there was money for you.
To repay them, you need to provide something of value to your country and people. And treat the elderly with respect because they agreed to have this system.
And don't forget to have children because they will pay into the system when you are too old to work. Best wishes, your neighbor Duitsland.
@@Para-Phrase Thats not how any of that works lol.
@@hexlart8481 Doctors and Nurses come from hot air, just to work for you and money appears out of nothing to pay everyone.
Nobody needs to have children, raise them educate and train them for millions of euros until they pay into the system that they took from.
Insurance always has money, there needs to be no surplus in funds by a majority of healthy people to pay out when someone insured in the same money pool gets ill.
Finance deficits and the decline in population that pays more into the tax pool than takes out are figment of our imagination. Alright.
There are not problems. None at all.
@@hexlart8481 That's actually exactly how that works lol. Do you not know how Social Security works too?
okay the content shift is hella interesting especially when you dive into topics like this that most people wouldnt think about looking into themselves
Well he said he would quit escape from tarkov, so he can't make much content from tarkov
This is so true, I hate it when people use 'free market' to describe a market that is anything but free. It needs to have fair competition and many other elements before it meets that category
True. The half-assed legislation really just adds more administrative bloat.
It seem like the american healthcare system is motivated towards people not getting healthier. And It's insane that the same service costs different for different people. The campaign for universal pricing needs a lot more spotlight.
That is exactly how it is motivated. A recent case in point my poor wife is experiencing:
She was able to get approved to start Ozempic for use in weight loss. This medication is also used to help regulate blood sugar in diabetic patients. Currently, she is pre-diabetic and has not been able to lose any weight with proper dieting. Rather than go with the extreme option of gastric bypass, she pushed to take Ozempic. The doctor sent prior-authorization forms to her medical insurance and it was approved, but for only 90 days. Her doctor appealed it but they rejected it again. According to the state medical insurance she has, they will only approve full-time use if she is a type 2 diabetic.
The insurance company would rather she continue to be overweight, possibly become a type 2 diabetic, and then get the help she needs. This would allow them to not only get kickbacks for her being on Ozempic, but all the other costs that come from being a lifelong diabetic patient. Prior Authorizations have also become way more common for just about everything in recent years as well across all insurance companies, which just makes it more difficult to get the help you need. But hey, at least the insurance companies are making record profits!
I should also add that in retaliation to the lesser payouts that state insurance pays, some places will purposefully book your appointment a month or more out. It's not always because that's the soonest they can get you in, it's because they leave the availability open to people with better paying insurance or people that are able to pay in cash.
It's literally illegal to charge higher premiums on someone unhealthy. Go to the gym and eat healthy? Too bad. You pay the same as Mcfatso's who has a cheeseburger addiction resulting in early heart surgery and blood pressure medication.
@@HaloDude557 What does that have to do with anything? You’re attacking the wrong people here.
@@MaxDad7 I’m adding to the original comment’s point that healthcare doesn’t care if you’re healthy. Did my comment strike home? Are you fat? Is this why you got so defensive?
@@HaloDude557 I don’t think you are understanding what OP said, and are trying to take over the conversation. You do you I guess. Right now you sound like someone who takes everything at face value and attacks anyone who has the the intelligence to look outside the box.
I’ll answer your questions. Although they pertain nothing to the OPs comment, which you are supposedly adding to.
Did your comment strike home? What is home? There are many ways to take that. I’m assuming you think I’m fat, and that your comment hurt me. So no, it didn’t strike home.
Are you fat? Did you know that BMI is a stupid made up number? According to that chart that is supposed to encompass every person’s body type in the US, I am overweight. I bet you are too.
Is this why you got so defensive? Defensive is the wrong word to use in this context. I’m questioning your comment. In order to defend, I have to be attacked.
I guess on one hand you are right that the healthcare industry doesn’t care if you’re healthy. If you are, then you just pay your premiums and use it for the basics. You don’t have to worry about what medications, operations, or visits are covered. You don’t even need to pay! You could just get an HSA and put in what you want.
So here’s my question… Why are you complaining about premiums when you are healthy?
Heres a fun thing, I had an Medical emergency I didnt have my insurance card on me so they billed me as if I had none. 22,000$. When I gave them my Insurance card, My insurance paid 6,845$ and I would have to pay 350$. Math doesn't add up right? Well when I asked them for the complete bill there was a Blank deduction of 14,805$ under what the Insurance paid for. Need more proof its the insurance companies? lol
Here's a step by step how to fix americas healthcare with realistic systems:
1. no change to the average person
2. the government creates a base insurance institute, a non profit private insurance, that every other insurance is forced to pay to.
3. People that that make more than x2 gdp per capita pay more, exactly 2x. and it scaling with income. This will only apply to people born after 2000 for a soft transition
4. Everyone is automatically insured by the base insurance at birth. You can get additional insurance if you want.
5. all existing insurances will still take care of all the work they did before, but they can get a rebate on anything they paid for regarding services that base insurance takes care of.
6. They'll make money off of additional insurance, that is not covered by base.
I'm so glad you decided to take your channel in this direction. great first step, I learned something new today.
4:27
Holy hell... $135,870 *just* for pharmacy drug costs during a 29 day hospital stay. The hell did they do, just dump the entire inventory of anything name brand down that person's PICC line.
This is the absolute best UA-cam channel pivot ive ever seen. Well done!
Living in Australia, the medical system pricing structure in USA is insane...
i totally agree with ya. i live in sweden and it cost 10 bux aprox to go to a hospital NOMATTER what happens
bassicly just a cost for taking u in.
and if u use any kind of medicin then u pay normal prices(that is very cheap compared to other countries). and when u reach a certain point yearly, for me last year it was 1500 sek for my högkostnadskydd and after that every medicin is heavily discounted.
Here in the UK we have the NHS. Paid for by taxes.
Ive had:
Fusing 3 vertibrae, MRI scans, consultant visits, drugs, physio, aftercare and long term pain relief.
Price at the moment of need... Nothing, there will never be a bill.
I could have gone private for the operation on my spine.
Because it would be a pre existing condition, insurance wouldnt cover it and would have cost £80,000 to £120,000 ball park figure. Not including the physio, after care or pain relief.
Didnt expect this from the wiggle guy, very pleasantly surpirised and instant sub
Holy fuck that is insane I don't care what the numbers say those hospitals and clinics are definitely making more the 4%. Now while I know our health care is subsidised in Canada laser eye surgery is considered an elective surgery so I don't think it qualifies as most insurances also wont cover it but I had to do a double take at that $1799 per eye. Our starting cost at Lazik MD is $490 per eye I know cause of their radio commercials and I just double checked their site. That is absolutely insane, now I know people who paid more like those quotes but they had EXTREME eye problems that involved more then the basic procedure.
I wish you the best of luck with your pivot to other content! I really enjoy the quality of the work you put out.
I was an EMT for 5 years and I always felt gross asking patients in the middle of their emergency for their insurance info and all that. Especially knowing most insurance doesn't cover much if any of an ambulance ride.
Came to this video after your react video reaction, after watching your original wiggle video when it came out. It's wild that I never saw this recommended to me through the algorithm as it's a great video and an interesting topic to me, but it makes sense since I watch mostly game content on YT.
This seems crazy to me as a South African, nice video so far goat, you are a great content creator
There's lots of reasons why american healthcare is messed up.
Some of it is regulation and the absence of competition
Some of it is courts dropping the ball and allowing anybody to be sued for any frivolous reason
Some of it is insurance companies and other middle men getting money despite adding absolutely nothing to the treatment itself
Some of it is monopolization of healthcare via big pharma and IP law
Some of it is regulation of big pharma which makes bringing new drugs to the market very very difficult
And some of it is market dynamics like the fact that people are very happy to spend high amounts of money on healthcare as it's very important.
The fun part is figuring out which places you can haggle for a lower price. Some places won't do it, but if you offer a place like a Lasik clinic half, they might go for 75% of their asking price because it's elective ad they know that you can just hold off on it.
before I even watch this, healthcare should not be up to the "free market" it should be handled by universal government healthcare so that everyone has healthcare access for the betterment of us all
Love the new content g0at! branch out, be brave! There is life after tarkov!
Great video man. Super insightful and can defintaly relate. My girlfriend underwent a kidney transplant in 2021 and had to jump through so many hoops to get it done. It was hell for her, not just the surgery but the dialysis for years before the opperation and even the medication she is currently on. We had to go through tons of diffrent channels to get what she needs. As you said, it is complicated. Sharing this my friend. Keep up the good work.
Came here for your Tarkov stuff but....that is really quality content. I really like the way your Channel is going....keep it Up, greetings from Germany
2:25 this is exactly what they did to me. Over the next 4 months, they took countless X-rays and it still wouldn't heal. They finally had me turn 90 degrees for one X-ray and found that my collar bone not only broke but there was a piece of bone stuck in-between the two pieces, making it a Z shape. They then scheduled a surgery, had to re break the bone and put a crap ton of titanium in there. About 2 months after surgery, I lost my job as a garage door installer because I wasn't fully healed, it was now covid time and my company couldn't keep me in the office any longer. So, the hospital's billing department took their sweet time and didn't file all of my charges through the healthcare insurance I had through my job. I ended up having to pay $5,000+ extra so it didn't go into collection. Most of the X-rays weren't covered, yet they'd do 3 or 4 every time I went in. I thought it was just this one hospital and their billing that worked like that. Sadly, I am horribly mistaken. This country's healthcare system is abysmal and we just let it stay this way. More transparency is needed.
This exact topic is one of the most IMPORTANT things that needs to be discussed and figured out, IMO. Goat, please continue to do the great work that you do and I would personally love to see an entire series on this topic!
there's nothing to figure out, the solution is braindead obvious, free good state healthcare from a small bit of the ever increasing military budget. You fuckers love to talk about "balancing the budget" but there's only one thing that's massively unbalanced.
just ctrl-c, ctrl-v Australia's or most of the EUs system, america is an extreme outlier when it comes to this stuff...
Get insurance.
At least you don't have to wait 5 years for an MRI or to see a specialist.
I subscribed because of the Tarkov Wiggle, but im staying for investigative work like this!
Nice work brushing the surface here. I work on the hospital side and it is obscene how much the cost of healthcare is inflated strictly for the purpose of paying the insurance companies their margins.
As inflation kicks in, hospital reimbursements for the same things is going down while costs are going up. Most health systems have been operating at a loss for the last year while insurance company margins are soaring.
Dude... That was an EXCELLENT video! It was quite the refreshment on some info I had forgotten. Keep it up g0at :D
The US spends the most on healthcare out of any country in the developed world, but has some of the worst outcomes and pricing.
Yeah, as a paramedic, It’s impossible for us to know how much healthcare costs, and it is a pain in the ass to not know
Yes, I experienced this problem a few months ago in my country as well, South Africa. I have insurance but the costs very quickly exceeded what they would cover so I had to settle a lot of those bills myself. What surprised me was that it wasn't just paying the hospital, it was paying each department seperately and then also the doctors separately. Some of the names in these bills I didn't even recognize and realized how easy it is to go through someones trash and send them a fake bill. Oh wait the radiology department could at least tell me up front how much I would have to pay for the scan only, but 3 of the 4 other bills I didn't see coming.
Most GP's here however will tell you upfront how much a consultation would cost if you ask.
As an EMT working on an ambulance they actually told us flat out that the average Emergency Transport will cost somewhere between $500-$2000 for the the patient/insurance and if needed a Helicopter would cost about $10k. 50-100% of it “should” be covered by the insurance and most of the time they just write off what the patient has to pay out of pocket.
Absolutely amazing! This was great! Excited to see more of your journalism :)
It's clear that you're passionate about this kind of content simply because of how quality this vid is. Loving the direction and if it makes you happy all the better.
You're quickly becoming my favorite UA-camr. It's not about the content, it's about your presentation. The Tarkov video was expertly well done, and every video after that was amazingly well presented. And now this! Amazing!
awesome and very detailed video! Excited for part 2 :)
Excellent not-too-long video on a complex topic. Excited to see more from you!
Nice. The more people that talk about this stuff the better.
Yuppppp. I was in the hospital in February and 2 days; insurance covered everything but $200. I had to get a follow-up xray to make sure an infection cleared and that alone cost me $200. How does a 2 minute xray and a 2 day hospital stay cost the same amount?
Damn, that sucks. As a canadian something like an xray is completely free. Recognizing a broken system is the first step to fixing it.
Even as someone who only ends up in A&E, or even my GP's office once every couple years at most, I'll be damned if we ever lose our NHS in the UK, as no matter what happens to me, there's quite a bit of peace of mind when the only 'fees' I'll ever have to think about are for car-parking and snacks. Everything else is paid for through taxes that are automatically deducted before my pay-cheque even hits my bank.
Im self employed in the UK. I gladly pay my taxes at the end of the year knowing the NHS safety net is there...
What bugs me the most is the foreigners that barely speak English taking advantage of our 'free' healthcare and benefits systems.
Fun Fact :: The star on the dollar bill at 2:28 is to indicate that that serial number was previously destroyed and now reprinted.
I think your tone and delivery style is perfectly suited for investigative journalism. Very excited to see what you’ll be coming up with! 👀👀🔥
Love the video and the topic. Great research on the topic. I will say that the transition from "Why don't they post prices" into "it doesn't madder to most people anyway" and then into "but insurance companies want the prices to go up so they can make more money" felt a little clunky to me. It worked, but each transition left me feeling a little confused on how we got their and why we were done with the previous section while watching the video the first time. It makes total sense after everything was on the table, but it just felt a little odd in the moment. Feel free to take the feedback or ignore it. Great work overall and I cant' wait to see more of these kinds of vids. I feel like on so many topics these kinds of discussions are only done at the 1000' level, and don't get down into it like this one did.
Whoa what a cool twist to the channel, I love it! This topic of healthcare could be turned into a complete series. Heck when I broke my leg in 3 places when I was 21 and got the bill for $125k even my doctor acted "shocked". But at no point did I ever consider shopping prices, I just wanted to be able to walk again.
As someone not from the US, your healthcare always sounds dystopian.
Id rather deal with health insurance and unclear pricing over the harmful and deadly wait lines, old technology, and pathetic after care we have in BC
I just got 3 stitches done on a 3cm cut. I had to go to the ER to get it done because it was late in the day. It cost $3.2k total, $2000 for the ER visit, $400 for medication/painkillers, $300 for the suture kit, $500 in fees. Ig atleast I got an 80% discount because I am uninsured -_-
Moral of the story, if you can wait, wait and go to a UC or Doctor. If it's an immediate emergency try to go to UC or your doctor. If you're dying or UC/doctor isn't equipped to handle your issue, go to ER.
You also have your right to deny use of medications, medical items, or medical procedures you don't need.
And this is how another educative video content creator i enjoy is born. You do awesome job g0at!!!
Loving the new content so far, keep it up!
Wtf, as a German I don't need to worrie about medical cost as they are covered by public health care
Was not expecting this, great work!
I love your journalism man! I hope you remember me when you blow up!
Extremely interesting video!! I have lived in the US my entire life and haven’t even thought about price transparency in terms of healthcare. I love the new kind of videos you’re putting out.
You are VERY quickly becoming my fastest click on the platform sir.
As a medical professional myself, we have no idea on billing. All we know is if unless you have GOOD insurance then plan to always get screwed. USA= Corporate Medicine. So when a patient decides to stay longer or ask for unemergent things then I feel obligated to say that it’s fine but your insurance may not cover it. That denial of coverage is always insanely expensive. You could take a normal Tylenol and probably quintuple the price
I don't know if it's been mentioned yet, but when I worked at a Hospital we were taught the reason we could not tell people how much something would cost was because of EMTALA (Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act 1986). The way they described it was that everyone has a right to be seen by a medical provider if they checked in, and if we told someone how much something cost and they couldn't afford it, they would leave and thus be denied the right to be seen. Whether this is the real reason or not I don't know. But it's possible the Nurses who told you they didn't know, simply weren't allowed to tell you because of Hospital Policy/Emtala restrictions.
I've worked in healthcare for the last 11 years. I am fairly certain insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies control American healthcare and lobby our governmental officials to keep control and profits high. Yeah, we can't just look at hospital profits which is what most people seem to think is making bank. We have to look into insurance, pharmaceutical and medical device profits to get a deeper understanding of what is going on. Brigham Buhler used to be a pharmaceutical marketer/representative who went on Rogan not too long ago and did a fair job explaining some of this.
Also... loving this content g0at. There is so much out there that needs exposed and I for one appreciate what you are trying to do.
In our local hospital theres actjually a bulletin board with all the prices for every operation(analysis like rbc count or urinalysis) except for the price of consultation.
A buddy of mine owes $25,000 because his kid broke an elbow at school, and said when he asked for a specific hospital, the EMT said they were too busy to be able to see his kid quickly. So they strongly advised one that was "out of network" but not as busy.
What the fuck does "out of network" even mean? Am I supposed to only have an emergency in a low-traffic area that happens to be close to an "in network" hospital?
Criminal
In my health care economics capstone course, one of the biggest issues with health care prices is the lack of transparency for all fees per services rendered. The inability for one physician or hospital to properly negotiate using "fair (and transparent) market prices" with insurance companies is something that needs to be addressed. Otherwise, ridiculous pricing and price gouging will continue.
TLDR: because NO ONE, not even the billing departments, nor the insurance underwriters know what the ACTUAL market rate fees for services are, there is not accountability for how truly inflated prices are and will continue to be.
The US/Canada are the only places I've ever been where you don't have to include tax in listed prices. "Clear and accurate information about the cost of stuff" my arse.
Everything else however is excellent. Nice work.
This is a wild turn from your usual content, and I am here for it! Keep em coming!
i really love your new content
and even though you build your channel around Tarkov i really love to see every video you put out
no matter what its about :D
wanna know something funny, in germany, where pretty much everyone is insured (you have to be insured by law actually), if you go to a doctor and tell them you are not insured or wish to pay for your treatment yourself for whatever reason, they can give you an exact price at reception.
There should be an exit poll for prices
One thing I'll say about the 4.1% profit margin of hospitals not being much, that's entirely subjective to the market that it directly ties into. Here in the UK the NHS negotiates *much* cheaper prices for treatments as part of the "free at point of entry" care we offer. I had a look at comparable medication prices pharmaceutical companies charge and the differences based purely on country of sale and the US pays a *lot* more, mainly because there's an entire market based on private healthcare where the US is more profitable to charge more and you'll pay it.
If the US healthcare system got given the UK prices and didn't change what they charge patients I'd bet profit would skyrocket possibly even into triple (or more) digits of percentage.
You are really good at investigative reporting. Enjoying the new direction!
I‘ve spent my late youth and early adult life in the US, and I‘ve been a Volunteer EMT-B, so I guess I know the US-Healtcare system at least a bit. I moved back to Germany 9 years ago and I‘m working now as a paramedic since almost 6 years. It’s sad that a hospital treatment can let you go bankrupt in the US. Over here we pay a fixed amount of our salary each month for health insurance, which is 14.6%. Health insurance over here covers almost everything, with the exception of beauty surgery, and even for that are exceptions.
That doesn’t mean that we don’t have issues with our healthcare system, there are plenty but I rather pay a fixed amount of my salary each month than going bankrupt because I need a major surgery.
I can get behind this style of content just as easily as gaming man. Top notch video. Keep it up dude!
Most may have healthcare in the US but you still receive a big bill when going to the ER (1000+ generally) and have deductibles up to nearly 10k. US healthcare system is a fin joke.
Did you try the wiggle in front of the doctors??? Lol 😆 🤣 😂
1:52 every time you see somebody like that, makes you feel a little bit better that people like that exist.. then you realize that it's becoming less and less common.. but then you run into another one.. what a badass.
Fascinating. Although often admired, the German system for instance, has other flaws. In general treatmants are free for patients, but the insurance companies try to keep costs low and pressure hospitals. These - meanwhile a lot sold to private companies - offer the best price treamtment, not necessarily the best for the patients but the hospitals purse. So all this is not free of flaws either 😂
The most level headed non-american here. People love to champion "socialized healthcare". I am a veteran, the VA is the biggest example of why socialized healthcare is non-condusive to Americans. They help me with small stuff, but big stuff is when it gets complicated af. With the amount of of "nickel and dime" taxation that goes on in the US, you'd think social programmers would be *more* expansive and not less.
Hello g0at. I liked the video quite a lot. These questions are my world, it's cool to see you diving in. There are so many videos, essays, and books covering this topic, but almost all of them get it massively wrong. I kept thinking, "here's where he's about to totally misunderstand the issues," but you kept saying the right stuff all the way to the end. I agreed with virtually everything you said. Your video is a light in a sea of darkness. Great job!
I look forward to your follow-up videos (maybe that's where you'll totally misunderstand :) ). Your final line was the perfect ending point that everybody needs to remember: we do NOT have a market for health care, and that is the explanation for so much of the weirdness of the industry.
HI! I am a biotechnology student in Italy. The industry is extremely expensive. Suffice it to say that a specific analysis or therapy can cost as much as 600/1000 euros per dose.
In any case however, from a pharmacological point of view, the American market is always taken as a reference since that is where most of the money goes. The American healthcare market is insane and far too permissive, and I say this as a researcher.
This is your third video I watched. It's nice that the UA-cam algorithm works every once in awhile
If the medical providers truly didn't know approximately how much treatment was going to cost ahead of time, they would be bankrupt and unable to function. They don't provide this information because they use the lack of price transparency to their advantage when billing insurance companies and patients.
They also know that a lot of medical care is non-elective and highly urgent. This gives them a huge amount of leverage of patients when it comes to negotiating over prices. Oh, on a final note that I'm sure others find infuriating and not just myself. The vast majority of hospitals and medical provider entities operate as non-profits. They don't pay any tax on the income they make charging patients obscene prices.
I gotta say, i am glad you are doing what you love. I respect that. Having said that, good luck and have fun!
Love your new investigation angles
I am a Canadian living in Hong Kong. The last MRI I had (a knee full work up) cost about 5000hkd, or about $800 US - at a clinic, within about 48 hours of request, no panic. America is an amazing fail when it comes to healthcare.
I must be one of the few people who ask how much a procedure is before they do it. What does it look like, Im made of money?
Well done! Love the video and new investigative journalism!
I work in a Hospital's Laboratory as a Medical Lab Scientist. The laboratory is where hospitals make most of their money because of how crazy expensive certain testing can be. When people go to a hospital for some sort of procedure or medical emergency, any blood that is drawn comes to us, and whatever the doctor orders can vary greatly in price, especially if we don't have tests on available in our laboratory; Sometimes doctors can order vague or very specific tests, each test can range from 20 dollars to over 3000, FOR A SINGULAR TEST. There is one test that drives me up a wall when doctors order it and its a Respiratory PCR Bacterial ID, we try to limit the the test to only those who are on Intensive care or pediatric patients but sometimes doctors will demand that we do these tests that will cost the patient about $1000, the best part, they are usually always negative for any of the ones on the panel and further testing will be done. Other things that come to mind is if patients need blood or plasma, or platelets. Transfusions are done but the prices could be different due to the blood providers to the hospitals blood bank. Nurses handle direct patient care and administer stuff like antibiotics, or blood thins, anticoagulants, all that stuff has a price too, but no where near close to what a laboratory will cost you. Hardly anyone knows what actually happens behind the scenes, some even think the doctors run all these tests by themselves. I highly encourage you try to look deeper inside at what goes on in the Hospital's Laboratory or Medical Laboratory Science as well, Idk if you can get much though since we mess with all sorts of private medical information. HIPPA is very important.
It's always unfortunate when someone gets slapped with a huge bill, but try to think of it this way: MDs are generally going to be pretty aggressive when it comes to the diagnosis and treatment of respiratory infections as they are some of the leading causes of mortality/morbidity. The PCR test is going to give you the results you want more accurately and more quickly than a standard culture. It's better to be charged for an expensive test than end up with a prolonged stay (which will cost the hospital more) or get home and end up in respiratory failure (patient is readmitted within a short window of time = hospital receives reduced reimbursement) due to an undiagnosed infection. I know it may not always make sense at first glance, but trust that the tests are not ordered on a whim.
Damn, didn't get political but still stated the facts. Perfect.
Fantastic video G0at. The healthcare system is hella broken. You really have to take your health and its care into your own hands and not outsource it. The healthcare system mismanaged my chronically ill wife for years before she figured out that no one really cared about her until she found the right doctor who ended up saving her life. God bless that doctor. There are some good doctors out there, but the system is super, super broken.
Health care with no insurance from 18-22 killed me , i had a bad spurt with Asthma which now has subsided. Ive learned it was allergy based. But it killed me financially.... Im 37 now im jist recovering completely
This was awesome, great shift in content indeed!
a lot of the pricing is what the insurance will pay for it, they will over inflate the price, then haggle with insurance companies. hospitals get like 5-10% of the actual bill.
You make really excellent quality videos, the work you put into them totally shows.
I could fill a whole page on this subject. The problem is a really complex one, but the root of it is very simple: it all comes down to making money. A lot of the companies involved in healthcare are publicly held or privately by third-party investors... when you have shareholders, they want to see green on the balance sheet. Providing high-quality care or affordable coverage for everything will usually result in more red on those shareholder meeting presentations, so... corners are cut, costs reduced. Also... you would not believe how much fraud and waste there is in the medical business... it's breathtaking.
Sadly, these companies are also in the ears of the people who could change things for the better... so, don't expect changes anytime soon.
On a slightly different note: One way you can keep your healthcare costs down is to simply see your physician every year (or twice a year), wash your hands, eat healthy, exercise a little bit every day, don't smoke or drink to excess, and drink plenty of water. These things won't assure perfect health, but they will greatly help your chances of staying healthy. Don't just seek medical care when you're not well... go regularly to stay well.
The ethical interplay with a private healthcare system is so complicated. The people that make the money in this is the insurance company. A dilemma for the public without extensive medical backgrounds. How do you choose what's important without all the information? How can you truly have informed consent?
Loved this type of video, looking forward to your next one!
Well done on the content shift. Your style is excellent and I don't see how you can wrong if you just tell the truth and show the receipts, good luck man, really hope it works for you.
Go deeper! enjoying this episode, but your merely exposing the lack of transparency and not providing us with the deeper insights or history of the topic. Regardless, as a pilot, i love this sorta stuff. Thanks goat
I could have gone on for hours!
I enjoy this big J Journalism/content. Not American and Nothing new for me personally in terms of information but enjoyed the delivery.
RADIOLOGIST COSTS A COUPLE HUNDRED TO *READ* YOUR X-RAY AND SAY WHAT'S IN THERE? This is absolutely ridiculous, especially since a good doctor will just want to see the x-ray cd themself anyway. A couple hundred dollars for around 20-30 minutes of work, depending on the case and body part. Amazing.
I'm from the EU and I don't know a whole lot about healthcare in America but it was still an interesting watch, thanks g0at